Becoming a Fanboy

I wouldn't really consider myself much of a fanboy. I've never written any fan-fiction and I haven't even gone to any conventions (although now that we're so close to San Diego, I'm hoping to go to Comicon this August). But sometimes an event comes up that I just can't pass up. Last Saturday was one of those events. I learned that there was to be a launch party and book signing for the release of a new book in the "Wild Card" series. Now, I had never read, nor even heard of the Wild Card books until I learned about this signing. And the only reason I payed attention to the signing was because my favorite author was organizing the whole event.

The author in question is George R. R. Martin, creator of the "Song of Ice and Fire" series. He's been called "the American Tolkien", and for good reason. His books are fantastic. Anyway, his presence at this event was enough justification for me to drive the five hours one-way to Albuquerque to meet him (and get all of my "Ice and Fire" books signed). I also got to gorge myself on chile rellenos and sopapaillas at the best damn restaurant on the planet: Los Cuates.

It was well worth the trip. George is one of those rare authors who still seems to care about communicating with his fans. He's set up a blog and a website to keep all of us informed about his various projects and to give us a bit of an insight into who he is as a person. For instance, he's a self-proclaimed bleeding-heart liberal who despises Bush (how can you NOT love this guy?!?) and a huge Giants fan, so he is now giddy with excitement after last night's Superbowl. He even takes the time to personally reply to fan emails (which he has done for me twice now). Although, when I thanked him for that he did mention he is about 3000 emails behind at the moment.

So, I got to meet my favorite author, got all my books signed, and picked up a copy of "INSIDE STRAIGHT", the new book they were launching. I started reading it yesterday and can't seem to put it down. If you like the NBC series "Heroes", you'll love this book, particularly since the writers of Heroes seem to have stolen absolutely every story, plot and character idea directly from the 20-year old Wild Card series. But according to the seven authors present at the launch party, they're not bitter, nor are they planning any copyright infringement suits...yet.

I still don't consider myself a fanboy, but I think my ten-hour, 740 mile marathon drive on Saturday to get some books signed qualifies as the first step down that road.